Dancing with dugongs (Book)

Having fun and developing a practical philosophy for environmental teaching and research

Oliver PE and Dennison WC

This book is for environmental managers. Physically, our environment gives us everything we need, but then there are things that we just 'want', so as our wants grow, the demands we place on our environment increase even more rapidly. As awareness of these environmental pressures grow, so too do the numbers of people working in environmental fields. People can burn out trying to balance their desire to protect the environment with a wide variety of demands. This book tells the story of Prof. Bill Dennison and Dr. Peter Oliver, two men who have between them spent 60 years of their lives better understanding catchments, waterways, and people and how they interact. It is the result of them sharing stories about their work with each other and having fun doing it. They have recognized that looking after the environment should also be fun, and that there is a real need to reflect individually and with others on the 'how' and 'why' of our work. Articulating such a practical philosophy can help us to do our work better. Bill and Peter have also recognized key lessons in several areas including science communication, empowering communities and working in school and university settings. These lessons are well illustrated in the pages within.

South East Queensland Floods 2011 (Newsletter)

Mud, nutrients and coral

Udy J and Soustal N

SEQ Healthy Waterways Partnership

During the January 2011 flood, millions of tonnes of soil were washed from the upper catchments into the Brisbane River by fast flowing flood waters. The soil formed a brown plume which extended from the river mouth into Moreton Bay. As the flow of the water slowed, fine soil particles (mud) settled within the Brisbane Estuary and Moreton Bay. As a result, many kilometres of the once sandy bottom of the Bay are now covered by a thick mud layer loaded with nutrients, such as phosphorus and nitrogen. This newsletter explores the short and long term impacts of the mud and nutrients on aquatic habitats, and the animals and plants living within them. The impacts include: mud smothering the bottom of Moreton Bay, excess nutrients and nuisance algae blooms, corals with signs of stress such as bleaching.

South East Queensland Floods 2011 (Newsletter)

Seagrasses, turtles and dugongs

Dennison WC, Udy, J

SEQ Healthy Waterways Partnership

Moreton Bay is internationally recognised for its large population of green sea turtles and dugongs, and for its unique location next to a major capital city. Following the January flood, there has been serious concern about the impact of the flood plume on these symbolic Moreton Bay creatures. This newsletter provides an overview of some of the initial flood impact assessment results for seagrasses, turtles and dugongs, and identifies the risks that need to be monitored. For further infomation, see the associated blog posts.

South East Queensland Floods 2011 (Newsletter)

Creeks, streambanks and paddocks

Intense rainfall between 10-12 January 2011 caused flash and river flooding throughout the region. This newsletter focuses on the flood impacts on creeks, streambanks and paddocks. The floods caused significant impacts to waterways and the adjacent floodplains. The greatest impacts occurred in the Lockyer, Mid and Upper Brisbane and Bremer catchments with devastating loss of life and significant environmental damage. Across the catchments, there has been widespread loss of topsoil, streambank erosion, gully expansion, landslips, sediment redistribution, channel redirection and vegetation removal. For further infomation, see the associated blog posts.

South East Queensland Floods 2011 (Newsletter)

Overview of the flood event

Dennison WC, Udy J, Schneider P, Filet P

SEQ Healthy Waterways Partnership

The 2011 floods in South East Queensland were devastating to the people and economy of Queensland, with lives lost and homes and infrastructure destroyed. As communities across Queensland rebuild their homes and businesses, the impact of the floods on the ecosystems that support commercial and recreational activities of the state are unknown. The flood has already had a short term impact on water quality in the River and Moreton Bay, and increased risks associated with human contact and shipping. This newsletter outlines the impacts and effects through a conceptual diagram developed by the Flood Science Taskforce. For further infomation, see the associated blog posts.

Environmental report cards: A tool for better management, monitoring, and research (Poster)

Environmental report cards are an important tool for integrating assessments of ecosystem health and for communicating scientific understanding to decision makers and the general public. Environmental report cards rely on a suite of environmental indicators (= performance measures, vital signs, reference values) and thresholds (= goals, criteria, standards). The process of combining indicators is an important aspect of ecosystem health assessments and can be accomplished by a variety of mechanisms and influence the results. The specificity of reporting regions can influence the impact of the report cards. Geographically explicit report cards can create a powerful human motivator-peer pressure. Report cards can engender a healthy competition between communities and community leaders to achieve better report card grades. The credibility of the environmental report cards needs to be established by a transparent process in which the data, indices, maps and conceptual foundation are explicit. Report cards can provide timely, synthesized information to a broad audience.

Healthy Waterways, Healthy Catchments (Book)

Abal EG, Bunn SE and Dennison WC

Moreton Bay Waterways and Catchments Partnership

This book was the fourth in a series of publications in support of the Heathy Waterways campaign in Southeast Queensland, Australia. It synthesizes the scientific investigations focused on the catchments and waterways of the Southeast Queensland region. Chapters on the setting, habitats, sediments, nutrients, monitoring, modeling, harmful algal blooms integrate the various scientific studies occurring in the region. It used a graphic-rich format with extensive use of conceptual diagrams, maps, photographs, figures and tables to communicate scientific results.

April 2003 Brisbane, Australia

This 19 slide presentation discusses the processes of nutrient limitation in coastal waters; the difficulties of inferring limitation from nutrient budgets; the importance of nutrient budgets for developing, research, monitoring and management priorities; and highlights some of the methods used effectively to determine limiting nutrients in Moreton Bay. It concludes with some of the problems associated with using the concept of 'limiting nutrient' to translate into useful management actions.

Assessing Nutrient Sources in Tidal Waters (Presentation)

This 17 slide presentation describes the use of a stable isotope technique developed in Australia to determine nitrogen sources in Chesapeake Bay. It details the theory of the technique, and its application in Moreton Bay, Australia, where it is now incorporated into the ongoing monitoring program (www.healthywaterways.org). The δ15N technique was found to reliably detect the source and extent of sewage and aquaculture nitrogen plumes. Additional data suggested that agricultural and septic sources could also be detected. This technique is now being tested in the Choptank and Patuxent Rivers and results of this research will appear on the IAN website.

Assessing ecosystem health in coastal waters (Presentation)

June 2003 Oceanology International 2003, New Orleans June 2002 Healthy Ecosystems: Healthy People Conference, Washington DC

This 33 slide presentation outlines a quantitative method of assessing ecosystem health using a case study of Moreton Bay, Australia. Background information about Moreton Bay is presented, a conceptual diagram of ecosystem health and the various indicators selected is used to develop the principles of the monitoring program. Data from a multi-institution, multi-disciplinary monitoring effort is measured, modeled and mapped. An integrated map (area-weighted averaging) of ecosystem health results and report card values for various generated based on this map.

About

A goal of IAN Press is to empower scientists to directly communicate their ideas and concepts. Publications from IAN Press are designed to transform the uninterested to interested; the interested to involved and the involved to engaged.

IAN Press products are designed to be examples of good science communication principles, and the hope is that others will employ these principles so that scientific understanding can be disseminated widely as possible. The production of IAN Press communication publications involves experimentation with communication techniques and, as such, provides various ideas for science communication that can be emulated.

The comparisons and contrasts that IAN Press provides on environmental subjects intend to stimulate scientists, managers, practitioners, policy makers, students and other readers to think more broadly and expansively about the region and issues that they face. The extensive use of visual elements accesses a broader cultural diversity as well, which allow for more global perspectives.

The conclusions and recommendations presented in IAN Press publications are crafted to empower actions, plant seeds of ideas and provide justification for people to take appropriate action to find solutions to environmental problems. The conclusions are made as explicit as possible by employing active titles and featuring them prominently (e.g., front section of books or back cover of newsletters).

On costs

IAN Press does not provide author royalties and the design and layout of the publications conducted by a talented team of Science Communicators is underwritten by various grants and contracts. Marketing is limited to the internet and word-of-mouth, also reducing costs. Thus, the price of IAN Press publications is solely to reimburse the actual printing costs entailed. The intent is to provide the broadest possible readership, thus keeping costs as low as possible is paramount. Typically, full color is used, virtually on every page, which does increase print costs, however, the use of color is a key element in providing accessible information to a wide audience and the lack of author royalties or design/layout charges.

Peer review

IAN Press undertakes a rigorous review process by both peer scientists and resource managers. In addition, Integration and Application Network Science Integrators and Science Communicators read, edit and review all aspects of IAN Press publications, including text, conceptual diagrams, photographs, maps, figures and tables. Many IAN Press publications are multi-authored, and each author contributes to the review and editing of the entire publication. This is not the classical peer review system of a limited number of anonymous reviewers working with an editor to recommend changes, rather a larger number of non-anonymous reviewers that develop consensus on each word, visual element and recommendation. The review process is often accelerated by IAN Press to accommodate timely publication.

Authorship

IAN Press attempts to be as authorship inclusive as possible and to provide attribution to each visual element. Authorship is not ranked or ordered, and the credibility of the IAN Press product should be based on the scientific data presented and the collective effort of a multiple of contributors, both with and without formal academic training.

Science Communicators are the key element in the production of IAN Press documents. They design the layout of the document, obtain and edit the visual elements, designate the amount and style of text, and orchestrate the review and editing process. IAN Press documents are produced using a 'storyboard' approach, in which the central message(s) are identified and various visual elements selected to support the central message(s). This is in contrast to the more traditional method of writing text and adding in visuals subsequently. In video and film production, storyboards are used and the producer is key to assembling the visual elements. Science Communicators serve in an equivalent role in terms of assembling all the pieces that go into the publication.

Color

IAN Press relies extensively on color for photographs, maps, conceptual diagrams, figures and even text and tables to a limited degree. The use of color allows for an increased data density and provides a bigger visual impact considering the amount of the human brain devoted to visual discrimination of colors. Color allows for greater discrimination of visual elements and in data presentation, a closer juxtaposition of different elements and greater comparative utility. The preponderance of color printers and the ability of electronic versions to be displayed in color promote the inexpensive dissemination of full color documents. In order to help color-blind people compensate, an effort is made to provide other visual clues in graphics, such as symbols with different shapes or map delineations with different shading or texture, but some of the visual impact will be compromised.

Audience

IAN Press does not target a narrow, specific audience, rather attempts to be as inclusive as possible. As the world becomes more specialized, with marketing forces that promote highly targeted advertising campaigns, IAN Press products attempt to reach the broadest audience possible. IAN Press attempts to raise the bar rather than dumb down the message by using non-technical language, defining all terms and reducing acronym use. By providing synthesis, visualizations and context, we feel that relatively sophisticated concepts can be grasped by a non-technical audience. In fact, science has become highly specialized and often the language, tools and approaches used in various scientific disciplines are relatively incomprehensible to specialists in other disciplines. Thus, one audience of IAN Press is scientists from other specialties to encourage inter-disciplinary thinking and approaches.

Why use print media?

With the growing popularity of electronic media, the carbon footprint involved in producing and distributing paper products, and the ability to provide infinite resources via the web, it could be argued that IAN Press should disseminate entirely via electronic means. While IAN Press provides downloadable, web accessible materials, IAN Press continues to produces written products for the following reasons:

There is rigor and discipline required in producing science communication products that have limited 'real estate', that, is limited amounts of space to convey a message. A paper product maintains focus, while web links can lead to tangential issues. The priority setting required to establish the final layout and include various communication elements is important in conveying information. Fixed 'real estate' forces condensation, synthesis and integration. Every visual element is uniquely created for the purpose of conveying the specific information intended, rather than repurposed from other sources.

The written product invites non-linear reading, and a quick scan allows readers to delve into the visual elements most interesting to them. If a reader is most attracted to photographs, maps, conceptual diagrams, or figures, they can migrate to these elements and the figure legends should be self explanatory. Alternatively, if reading text is the preferred way of obtaining information, the text is designed to be self sufficient. The juxtaposition of text and various visual elements also conveys important information, something that can be lost via hyperlinks on the web. In addition, electronic books with the current technology do not support color graphics.

Since various IAN Press products are intended to inform a broad community from policy makers to the general public, the weight of scientific support that can be marshaled can be a factor in empowering people to action. In order to make an impact, the difference between hundreds of web pages and hundreds of printed pages is one reason to provide print versions of IAN products. In addition, internet access is not equally applied globally or socially, and in some societies and sectors of society, a written product provides a more accessible source, particularly through libraries and schools.

Printed materials provide a 'time stamp', a fixed point of time when the data are assembled and the conclusions are reached. Rather than constantly updating the data and conclusions, drawing the line in the sand as to what is known at a particular time point is what printed products do. The shelf life of science communication products should be somewhat limited due to the increased scientific understanding based on ongoing research, yet the record of what is known, and when it is known, provides an important archival body of information.

"The product drives the collaborative process"; in that the science communication product forces an intensely collaborative process of obtaining and refining visual elements, drafting and editing text, and experimenting with layout and design. While this collaborative process can be conducted with the production of web materials, print deadlines are a good way to insure timely delivery. In addition, to obtain buy-in from many scientists whose training and experience are in producing printed papers and books, printed copies are often necessary.